TOP THIS! Crock and Turtle: The Bestest Friends Ever! by Mike Wohnoutka

Croc and Turtle are best friends. But that doesn't mean that Croc is above showing off his prowess around little Turtle.

"HEY, TURTLE. DO YOU WANT TO SEE ME LIFT THIS HEAVY ROCK?

"UMM... SURE, CROC.

The rock is heavier than it looks. But with a grunt, Croc manages to get it a little way off the ground.

"PRETTY GOOD, CROC!" ADMITS TURTLE.

"I'M CROC, AND I'M THE STRONGEST!" CROCK BRAGS.

Elephant strolls up and asks what they're up to, and of course he hoists the rock and even tosses it high into the air. But Croc doesn't want to lose face in front of his friend Turtle, so he asks Turtle if he'd like to see him leap over the rock.

"WHOA!" SAYS TURTLE.

Turtle is duly impressed until Rabbit comes by and asks for a try. He hops high over the rock and declares it easy-peasy. Croc tries to redeem his reputation by running fast, but little Cheetah breezes right by him.

"I'M NOT THE BEST AT ANYTHING," CROC SNIFFS.

But Turtle has the best comeback ever.

"CROC, YOU ARE THE BEST FRIEND!"

It's a big world out there and there's always someone who is better at something, except for being your best friend's best friend, in Mike Wohnoutka's just published Croc And Turtle! The Bestest Friends Ever! (Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2020). In a sweet story of Best Friends Forever, Wohnoutka's perky, googly-eyed characters, done in black line and light gouache, take a light-hearted look at competition which proves again that there are different strokes for different folks. It's all relative, but best friends just can't be beat, in the latest sequel to author-illustrator Mike Whonoutka's earlier Croc 'n' Turtle tale, Croc And Turtle: Snow Fun!

Different But Together!: If I Was the Sunshine by Julie Fogliano

If you were the winter
and I was the spring
I’d call you whisper
and you’d call me sing.

Some things that are different go together, like sun and rain, oceans and boats, silence and sound, fireflies and dark, and even apples and worms!

And in the noted author poet Julie Fogliano's latest, If I Was the Sunshine (Atheneum Books, 2019), both nature and the concepts of alike and different  come together in opposite but complementary pairing as the subjects of her charming quatrains, simple verses which bring together unlike elements of nature in definite but delightfully arresting pairings.

If I were a bird
and you were a tree--
I'd call you home,
and you'd call me free!

Fogliano, winner of the Ezra Jack Keats' Award, writes poetry that is simple, but not simplistic, introducing youngsters to a depth of meaning that feels both right and surprising, logical, but moving, and with the help of the notable Caldecott artist Loren Long's lovely illustrations, this little poetry book has a lot to say about the rightness of the natural world. As School Library Journal sums it up, "The dance of words and pictures is lovely . . .."